Good morning. Alright, let's
be turning to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians 1. At the end of this, of verse
23, Paul says, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. And he repeats
this again in verse 25. Look at that. He says, whereof
I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which
is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. And then in
the last verse of this chapter, verse 29, Paul says, whereunto
I also labor, striving according to his working which worketh
in me mightily. Now why is Paul saying these
things? What does it mean for me today
that Paul said these things then? Am I a Colossian? Am I of Colossae? No, but you are a saint of God. You're a saint of God and God
speaks to you, you that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so what Paul's words are saying to us, what he means by these
things is, look at the heart of your God. Look at what your
God has done for you in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at all that
he's done all that he's put into this work, the work of the gospel,
for you, for your good and for your salvation, he's sacrificed
greatly for you. And he's done this to reveal
his salvation in you. I remember when I was in business. And I learned when going to school
how that a lot of companies, all the companies that would
transition to a new technology platform, they would spend many,
many resources, many men, many resources, man hours and people. They spent often millions of
dollars for the software and spend much more on consulting
for to implement that, they had to buy hardware and infrastructure
and they did all this, they invested all these resources and in school
at that time they said only about 25% of the businesses that did
that were successful. And the rest all rolled it back
to the old system. And then when I got a job and
I was working in business, I saw that happen multiple times, sometimes
on large scale, sometimes on small scales, where they'd buy
some new software because the people said, we need this to
do our jobs better. And it would go nowhere. After
many meetings, many investments, all these consulting hours, it
went nowhere. Nowhere. But then I was on one that did
go somewhere. And it was one of the hardest ones that we ever
did. And a lot of people left. A lot of people were sacrificed.
A lot of people fell during the way. And very few made it through
that transition. And I remember thinking, I don't
want to go anywhere. I want to see this thing through
and see what will happen on the other end. And we were successful. We made that transition. But how few companies ever do
that? Well, think of that in terms
of what your God has done in bringing this gospel. He cannot
fail, He has not failed, and He has invested and put in so
many resources for your good. for your salvation. Joshua said
it this way when he was speaking to Israel about the land that
God had given them for an inheritance. He said, and ye have seen all
that the Lord your God hath done unto all these nations because
of you. For the Lord your God is he that
hath fought for you. And so your God moves mountains
for you. He's provided everything necessary
for you. And he's destroyed nations and
kings and kingdoms for your good. And he's raised up his people
and taught his people and blessed his people by this gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Think of it. What we see here, what we're
being reminded of here, are the manifold blessings of God which
are showered upon you in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He reveals
these things to you. He makes this known to you through
the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's good
news, brethren. Good news. And so this message
is titled, God Made Known. God Made Known. Now, by way of
reminder of all these manifold blessings, let's look back earlier
in chapter 1. Let's look at verse 9. where Paul speaks of his prayer
and the prayer of his brethren with him, serving and ministering
the gospel to the people. He says of their prayer, he says,
for this cause, verse 9, we also, since the day we heard it, since
we heard what the Lord is doing here, because remember, Paul
didn't start this work here. Another minister who heard Paul
and heard the gospel and believed the gospel went and preached
this gospel to the people at Klasse and they heard and believed.
And so he said, since the first day, since we heard it, do not
cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled
with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual
understanding. Think of it. Does the natural
man know the things that you know concerning God? Does he
believe that which you believe? Does he have that same hope of
glory in him that you have? No, he doesn't, because you are
a child of God and God has revealed it to you. It's not of this flesh. Look at verse 10. He says that
ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful
in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. It pleases
God to teach you this word, to grow you in that knowledge, to
keep growing you more and more in the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Verse 11, strengthened with all
might according to the power of your flesh, not at all, no,
according to His glorious power, His glorious power unto And look
at these fruits more, unto all patience and long-suffering with
joyfulness. That's not a combination that
you see in the flesh. Long-suffering and patiently
enduring the long-suffering and that with joyfulness? That bouquet
of fruit there, those fruitful flowers together, born in you
of the Spirit, that's not of the flesh, that is of the Spirit. Giving thanks, verse 12, unto
the Father, He makes you a thankful people, a thankful people to
God, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life. God has done this, and made you
a partaker of that blessing which He gives, not to everyone, but
to His chosen people. He's chosen to be gracious to
you, and to make this word known to you, and to bless you by this
word, to bear fruit in you, unto the praise, honor, and glory
of His name. And so, our God has accomplished
the redemption of his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. That
work is finished. All that was necessary Christ
has come and has accomplished for your salvation so that our
warfare is over. We're not striving to get ourselves
saved. We're not striving to obtain
a righteousness for ourselves. It's given. It's given in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He came in the flesh, and just
thinking of what God has done, He sent His Son in the flesh,
who came willingly for you, laying aside His glory, laying aside
His power, and submitted Himself to the Father in all things. And He came in the weakness of
this flesh. and fulfilled all the righteousness
of God to be the fit sacrifice, the Lamb of God for His people,
who laid down His life in your place, to bear your sin and to
put your sin away, to give you life and grace in Himself, to
reconcile you to holy God, to put away the stain of our sins. And not only was this glorious
salvation accomplished for us, He did it for us when we were
yet sinners. yet in darkness, yet unaware
of God, yet fools in darkness, serving God according to the
lusts of the flesh, but now he has brought to us the light of
the gospel. Now he shines the light of his
gospel unto us, making known unto us this mystery of God,
keeping nothing back, but making known to us what he has done
through the preaching of the gospel. Peter worded it this
way in 1 Peter 1, verse 23, he said, being born again, he's
made you alive so that you could hear this, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. And he says in verse 25, but
the word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word
which by the gospel is preached unto you. And so he makes this
known to you. He's brought in many resources
to make this gospel word known to you. And we see it. We see
it in Christ's coming and laying down his life for you. We see
it with the apostles. With the apostles that he raised
up men who sacrificed greatly for the people of God. And what
Christ has accomplished is this good news that may be published. And he gives the Holy Spirit,
whereby we are regenerated to hear these things, to believe
what Christ has done. And he seals us with the Holy
Ghost, manifesting that his grace is working mightily in us, mightily
in us. And so this word delights Paul. Paul, when you read that, you
can see Paul is delighting in what the Father has done, what
Christ has done, how that he has brought this salvation to
light and not left us in darkness to stand before God in the day
of judgment, trusting in our own righteousness. But he's brought
this to you, and Paul is rejoicing in it. He said to the Romans,
8.35-37, he asks, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Who's going to separate us? Shall
tribulation? Is distress going to separate
us? Is persecution going to separate us from the love of Christ? What
if we're starving in famine? Is that going to separate us
from the love of Christ? Or nakedness, or peril, great
dangers, or sword? Is that going to separate us
from Christ? As it's written, for thy sake we are killed all
the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that
loved us. And you could see Paul overjoyed
and he's bubbling over and he's saying, don't ever doubt. that your God loves you and has
made full provision for you and is keeping you in Christ and
is blessing you in the Lord Jesus Christ for your good, not for
your popularity in the world, not for your great manifold riches
in the world, but for your manifold riches in Christ. You have everything,
everything necessary, everything blessed. Sure, the temporary
momentary pleasures of this flesh are not yours. He's not called
you to that and given you that. He calls you to Christ and blesses
you in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have that love of God
revealed in our hearts through Christ. So that our God has made
Christ preeminent in our hearts. For whose sake He laid down His
life and gave Himself suffering under the wrath of God for your
good, for your peace, for your comfort. for your understanding
in who your God is and to live with Him forever, for all eternity. And He raised up apostles, gave
them apostles who gave up these momentary pleasures and are considered
by the world and considered by those who knew them the off-scouring
of the world, just treated as dirt and dung and worthless people
and wanted nothing to do with them, except to put them to death. And they made great sacrifices
because of the grace and gift of God. And God gives you pastors
and emus pastors and peoples all around just to bring that
gospel even to a small congregation to give you that word this day,
to bless you, to comfort you, to be gracious to you, to nourish
you and feed you and strengthen you again in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he does that manifesting
his grace in you abundantly. Don't miss it. Don't let it pass
you by. Don't misunderstand what your
God is doing for you. Now Paul says a word here that
expresses this love of Christ for you, his body. Look at verse
24, Colossians 1 24. who now rejoice in my sufferings
for you." Paul saying, I rejoice in my sufferings for you. And fill up that which is behind
the afflictions of Christ in my body. in my flesh for his
body's sake, sorry, the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his
body, which is the church. And so Paul is saying that everything
he's done since he was knocked off his horse and arrested by
Christ on the road to Damascus, everything that he's done has
been for the body of Christ, for the body of Christ. He told
Timothy, I endure all things for the sake of the elect. I'm
happy to endure all things for the elect's sake that they may
also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal
glory." People think that it's going to be easy and they go
through trials and difficulties and adversities and hardships
and they're wondering why is it so hard and difficult. I thought
it would be easy. When it comes to eternal life,
it is easy for us in the sense that it's all been settled by
the Lord Jesus Christ. He bore the brunt. He bore all
the labor and the work Himself to obtain our eternal redemption. But He's called us to serve Him.
And there's a world that hates Him, a world that despises Him,
who will not hear His word, who reject His word and hate His
gospel and hate His people. you're going to endure hardness.
He told Timothy in another place, endure hardness as a good soldier
of Jesus Christ. Endure the hardness that you're
going to go through. And so Paul says, I rejoice in
my sufferings and I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions
of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church. And so he's making known to the
church Our God is making known to you, the church, His love
and sacrifice for you. Whenever the body of Christ suffers,
Christ feels it. Christ feels it. He's not unaware
of the feeling of our infirmities. He's a faithful high priest who
endured everything. He endured the wrath of God.
He bore our sorrows. He bore our infirmities. He bore
our sicknesses. He bore our sins. Christ bore
it all for us. He knows exactly what we feel. He knows the horror of sin and
darkness and being separated from God, forsaken of the Father. Christ knows. And so whenever
His body suffers, for His gospel's sake, He suffers. He feels it,
too. He feels it, too. So when the
wicked come against Him and His gospel, He feels it, but he endures
it for the elect's sake, for his people's sake. He's doing
this, he's sustaining this world, he's letting this world, he's
yet preserving his word in this dark world for his elect chosen
people. his elect people who have yet
to hear and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You think of thinking
of Christ and his feeling you think of Christ when Stephen
was preaching the gospel and he hit the nail right on the
head because it says they were cut to the heart and when when
you expose what's in the heart of man They'll gnash on you with
their teeth. They'll rip you apart because
they don't like a light shining on their darkness. The natural
man doesn't like it. He hates it. So he turns and
he rends that person speaking that word. But, Stephen, being
full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and
saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of
God. In other words, When Peter was
being stoned, or when Stephen was being stoned, when he was
being martyred, Christ stood up to receive him. He felt that. He was there with his child. He felt that hardship that his
child felt. Even Paul, when Paul was arrested
by Christ on the road to Damascus, What did Christ say to him? Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? Paul wasn't persecuting Christ,
was he? He was going and arresting believers
of Christ, men and women, taking them out of their houses, putting
them in jail, some of them going to death. And Christ said, you're
persecuting me. You're doing this to me, Paul. And so Christ feels what his
body feels. He knows your infirmities. He
knows the difficulties that you have. But he's left his church
here with a work, with a purpose, to publish this gospel, to preach
this gospel so that others like you who are in darkness today
but are the objects of His grace and mercy, He'll seek them out
and He'll bring them in to hear this Word and bless them with
this Word and break them out of the prison of darkness, break
them out of their flesh, deliver them from death and ruin and
bless them in the Lord Jesus Christ with what He's doing.
as he said through Peter, that God is long-suffering to us-ward,
not willing that any of us should perish, but that all of us should
come to repentance. That's why he bears long with
the wicked. That's why he bears long with
the sin, because he purposes to be gracious to his people. Verse 25, whereof Paul said,
I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which
is given to me for you, to fulfill the Word of God, to fully preach
this Word, to publish this Word in its fullness out into the
world, to call in God's sheep, to call in the lost sheep. And
the Holy Spirit makes it effectual in our hearts. He takes that
Word and engrafts that Word into the heart of His child so that
it's to us. It blesses us. This word is what
the Holy Ghost makes us to know. Let's see verse 26. even the mystery which hath been
hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to his
saints." He's talking about what our God has done for us. He's
talking about what God has done in Christ for you, what he has
done for you, sinner, sinner saved by the grace of God in
Christ. It's what he makes known to us
through the preaching of the gospel, declaring to us again
what Christ has accomplished in himself for us, how that God
has brought forth all these blessings in Christ to feed us, to nourish
us, to provide for us, to make us to know the love of God in
the Lord Jesus Christ for us. and to bless us, as he does this
day. You know, our faith is not a
new doctrine. It's been preached by God's servants
since the foundation of the world. It's been preached by our God
and His prophets and apostles since the foundation of the world. It's gone forth. It's not a new
doctrine. It tells of God's purpose for
His saints, for His people in Christ. And yet, it's called
a mystery. It's said to be hid, and that's
because it's hid to the carnal mind. It's hid to the natural
man who's been hearing it since this world was founded, being
declared in the first seven days of creation, seeing Christ in
that from the very beginning, and yet man doesn't see it, he
doesn't understand it, he doesn't know what God is saying to us
in Christ. Let's see this in 1 Corinthians
2. Let's turn over to 1 Corinthians
2. Let's go to verse 7 through 14. Here Paul is talking to the Corinthians
and he's saying to them the same thing that he's saying to the
Colossians, because this word is for all saints. But we speak
the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which
God ordained before the world unto our glory. He's describing the gospel. And he's saying, we're not hiding
this. This isn't some secret knowledge. It's a mystery to the natural
man, but we're preaching it openly. We're preaching it plainly. We're
preaching Christ boldly to the people. But we're seeing that
the darkness, the evil, the wickedness of man's heart, his own sin,
his own rebellion against God is revealed in that he could
care less. He doesn't need the Word of God.
He could care less to come and hear what the Lord is saying. We speak it openly, and it's
declaring God's glory for you, His salvation for you in Christ. He's describing the gospel, which
we preach openly, which none of the princes of this world
knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified
the Lord of glory. If the natural man could see
the things of God by his own flesh, by his own wisdom and
strength, he would have received Christ. He would have welcomed
Christ. He would have received him and
heard his word. But instead, man rejected Christ. Man rejected him, and they crucified
him because they judged him according to their own flesh. They judged
them according to the natural man and their own wisdom. But,
verse 9, as it's written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither
I've entered into the heart of man the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him. so that the natural eye, the
natural ear, the natural heart of man does not understand the
things of God. Doesn't understand the things
of God. I was talking to a neighbor recently, and she said, oh, I've
always believed that Jesus is the Savior. I've believed that
since I was a little girl. And I said, no, you didn't. That's
impossible. You could not have always known
this because the natural man does not receive the things of
God. He cannot understand them. You
need to be born again. You need the Spirit of God. It's
in the new man that we hear Christ and believe Him. It's a work
of God's grace for the sinner. So an old man cannot know these
things, not in truth, not in spirit, not in spirit, not according
to this word which our God gives us. but God hath revealed them
unto us, verse 10, by his Spirit, by his Spirit, for the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. Look at verse
12. Now we have received not the
Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. I probably should have read verse
11, which is just saying that you don't know what a person's
thinking. You think you know what a person's thinking, But
you don't know unless they tell you what they're thinking, and
they're honest in it. You just don't know it unless
they tell you, well, we need the Spirit of God to reveal to
us what he's saying to us in his word. Otherwise, we don't
know it. We don't know what God is thinking. That's why our God
tells us you must be born again. to know what God is saying, to
know what He's done for you in Christ. And so, God does this
for the saints, and He makes the saints know what He's done
for them in Christ, through the Gospel, and He gives us a new
eye, and a new ear, and a new heart, to hear the things of
Christ, to receive those things, and to believe Christ our Savior,
being born again by the Spirit of God. Now, hearing this word,
going down to verse 13 and 14, we hear this word as new creatures. And being new creatures, the
church supports and proclaims this gospel word for the body,
for the rest of the body. Just like Paul did, we do the
same thing. Enduring the hardships, enduring
the trials and the tribulations, enduring the difficulties, enduring
the times of the valley, for the elect's sake. For their sake,
verse 13, which things also we speak, not in the words which
man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual, that is according to the word
of God, as the Spirit reveals it, but the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned." The natural man does not have
a hope in Christ, but you do. But you do, and that's a testament
to God's grace, to the love of Christ revealed to you. In spite of all the things that
you think you should see, you yet have a hope in Christ, and
you yet gather here to hear this word to be fed and nourished.
That is the blessing and mercy of God manifested in you, that
you are a child of grace, a child of promise, a child of God, adopted
into the family of God by Jesus Christ. by Christ. Now verse
27, to whom, I'm sorry, back in Colossians 1, verse 27, to
whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of
this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. And so what God has done for
us in Christ, he makes known to the child of God, to the sinner
that he saves through the preaching of the gospel and the giving
of the Holy Ghost to make it known and understood in us and
to grow us in that knowledge. Grow us in that knowledge. He's
doing this. We don't know everything. And
even to this day, we yet see darkly, through a glass, darkly.
And there's a lot of things that we don't know. There's a lot
of things that we forget. There's a lot of things that
we need to be reminded of. and that's why he brings us together.
and he purposes to do it that way, that we would continue to
see that without Christ, we can do nothing. And so that we would
not think too highly of ourselves, but we would think everything
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that we would come and
be gathered as sheep, sheep of his pasture, to fellowship with
one another, to bear these fruits of his righteousness for the
good of his people. for your good, for your comfort,
for your peace, and for your joy. And so when God does this
for the sinner, it's called the deutimus. It's called the power
of God, the dynamite power of God, which explodes in you and
makes a new creature, a new creation that does not know this by nature. That's why Paul said to the Corinthians,
the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God, the explosive power of God. destroying, all
things are gone away, behold all things have become new in
Christ. So when Christ in you, the hope
of glory is revealed to you, there's a laying aside of all
these dead works, of scrounging up the dung of the flesh as our
religion, as our good works, and thinking that we could come
to God with filthy, vile, wretched works by this old dead flesh.
All those things are laid away. We see, Lord, You've done the
whole thing in Christ. And it's all by Your grace. Not
because I earned it, but because Christ earned it. Because He
earned it and did this. for me." Verse 28, whom we preach,
warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom. Every
man there is every creature in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the all in Christ, all for whom Christ laid down his life. That's
for his people whom he successfully saved and delivered from death.
warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that
we may present every man every one of Christ's people perfect
in Christ Jesus That's the church Revealed through the preaching
of the gospel and the sealing of the Holy Ghost. I pray he
blessed that word to your hearts brethren. Amen Let's close in
prayer and be dismissed Our gracious Lord, we thank you for your grace.
We thank you for your power, for all that you have sacrificed
for your people, giving for your people to show us the love of
Christ, that nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ, and
how you lead us through all manner of things to show, to prove to
us your great love and your great power and the fellowship that
you have with the saints in Christ. We thank you for this gospel. that reveals to us Christ. We
thank you, Lord, for your grace and power which makes it known
to our otherwise dead hearts and dead eyes and dead ears.
But we thank you for this grace, this power of our God to create
in us that which is born in us of Christ, wrought by Christ.
We thank you for this grace. We pray that you would bless
your people, that you would pour out your word upon us. It's in
Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen.